I've seen this movie before and here's my unsolicited advice to other developers. Back in the day, the Microsoft Desktop was an application that you could replace. So I created one of the earliest Windows interfaces with icons and drag and drop (called Aporia and later WinTools). Soon other players joined the fray of replacing and improving the Windows desktop (i.e. Windows versions 2 - 3.1) including heavy hitters like HP, Xerox, early Symantec, etc. Then at some point, Microsoft decided the desktop was theirs, and everybody had to get out of the pool. All of our products were crushed, and many of us went out of business. A couple of products had already merged into general utilities offerings, one of which ultimately morphed into the Symantec you know today
So I've seen this movie before, where you play in someone else's pool. It can be very sweet but only if you're early enough or if you don't depend entirely on Microsoft, I mean Twitter . It's very very high risk, and there can be some reward. One of those rewards may not be money but the experience of playing this game. It could be expensive learning but it's learning nonetheless. But also, just to say it, creating startup of any kind is very very risky. Just know what you're getting into. So as I see it the low hanging Twitter fruit is pretty much entirely done now. The odds of a small developer being able to create something that isn't already being funded and worked on is pretty close to zero. So you'll either have to do something radically new related to Twitter, or use Twitter as just a part of your offering. jeffrey greenberg http://www.jeffrey-greenberg.com http://www.tweettronics.com On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 1:42 AM, Tammy Fennell <tammykahnfenn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey, > > I think Ernandes is right. There is tons of room for innovation. I > started a linkedin group (all the other ones I found seemed a little > stale and disused) > http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Twitter-3rd-Party-Developers-3928159 > > I'd love to see more developers in there so we can keep pushing > forward a positive ecosystem. @TheMattHarris @RyanSarver or anyone at > Twitter, I'd love if you popped in too. Linkedin groups are pretty > effective for these sorts of things. > > Have a nice day everyone, > > ~Tammy > > On May 26, 3:44 pm, "Ernandes Jr." <ernan...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Twitter is trying to defend himself of becoming an hostage, since most users >> use these apps instead of the website. With such huge users base, TweetDeck >> along with other app, e.g., Echofon, would have enough audience to create a >> competitor to Twitter eventually. >> >> Anyway, there is also room for innovation. Let's put our head to work. Who >> knows our app becomes the next big purchase by Twitter. :D >> >> On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Felipe Knorr Kuhn <fkn...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> > I just wish Twitter would focus on the features the users want, rather than >> > spending money buying Twitter clients. >> >> > Some are really simple like raising the number of lists you can create, an >> > url shortener on the web interface, tweet to groups, etc. >> >> > Or the really useful feature that is searching for tweets older than one >> > week. >> >> > But oh well, you can't demand features from a free service, anyway. >> >> > FK >> >> > On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Matt Harris < thematthar...@twitter.com>wrote: >> >> >> Hey everyone, >> >> >> Today we announced on the Twitter Blog ( >> >>http://blog.twitter.com/2011/05/all-decked-out.html) that the TweetDeck >> >> team has joined Twitter. >> >> >> When Tweetie became part of the Twitter family the user growth was huge, >> >> creating more opportunities for developers to build applications for the >> >> growing audience. With TweetDeck now joining us we expect to see even more >> >> opportunities become available to you and look forward to seeing what you >> >> create. >> >> >> TweetDeck is a powerful platform for brands, publishers and advanced >> >> Twitter users, and we’re really excited that Iain and his team are joining >> >> us. We’re looking forward to working with them as we invest and support the >> >> TweetDeck that you all are familiar with. >> >> >> Best >> >> @themattharris >> >> >> -- >> >> Twitter developer documentation and resources: >> >>https://dev.twitter.com/doc >> >> API updates via Twitter:https://twitter.com/twitterapi >> >> Issues/Enhancements Tracker: >> >>https://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list >> >> Change your membership to this group: >> >>https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/twitter-development-talk >> >> > -- >> > Twitter developer documentation and resources: https://dev.twitter.com/doc >> > API updates via Twitter:https://twitter.com/twitterapi >> > Issues/Enhancements Tracker: >> >https://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list >> > Change your membership to this group: >> >https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/twitter-development-talk >> >> -- >> Ernandes Jr. >> --------------------- >> "ALL programs are poems. However, >> NOT all programmers are poets." > > -- > Twitter developer documentation and resources: https://dev.twitter.com/doc > API updates via Twitter: https://twitter.com/twitterapi > Issues/Enhancements Tracker: https://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list > Change your membership to this group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/twitter-development-talk > -- Twitter developer documentation and resources: https://dev.twitter.com/doc API updates via Twitter: https://twitter.com/twitterapi Issues/Enhancements Tracker: https://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list Change your membership to this group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/twitter-development-talk
